When I was 10 or 11 years old, I hung out with Lori Hooper. She seemed a bit savvy when it came to boys and was quite entertaining. She networked better than anyone I knew and seemed more popular than many other friends. It’s not that I was into the popularity game, for most of those people were snobbish, self-centered, and rather full of themselves.
We were adolescents, standing on the threshold between childhood and teenhood but not quite ready to pass through that door. I can’t quite remember how we made decisions on what to do. I remember tottering between boredom and excitement most days. Finally, we settled on going through Christmas decorations a bit before the season.
We went to my house after school, and no one was home, which was unusual. There was enough time between now and dinner to get a lot done, so I immediately proceeded to my room in the front of the house to the closet was under the attic stairs where we stored all the Christmas stuff. We pulled out all the boxes and spread everything out on the floor.
Whenever someone walked down the hallway towards my room, the floors creaked, and the radiator vibrated, making a rattling sound. No one was home, and suddenly we heard the sound of someone approaching my bedroom. We left the door open to see down the hall, and no one was there. I was closest to the door, and Lori was about two feet in front of me. The sound kept coming closer with no indication it would stop. We froze, terrified, then I felt the hem of a woman’s long dress brush against me, then the ghost stepped right through me. Then she moved out of me and right through Lori!
Our mouths dropped open, we screamed, threw down whatever was in our hands, and grabbed our coats. It was cold outside, but we would rather be there than in the warmth of the house.
Feeling a ghost walk through you is the most sickening sensation you could ever imagine. It’s almost enough to stop your heart and suck your soul out with it. But we were children, young, healthy, and full of life, so that wasn’t going to happen. But still, how disgusting, how dare you? Did that woman not see that she would pass right through two children? No manners. Horrible.
Who was that woman? My mother’s mother, grandmother, and father passed in that house. Was that older woman my grandmother or great-grandmother? My great-grandmother died in my bedroom. My father said he saw her leave her body. She was rocking in my rocking chair suffered from the hardening of the arteries when she slowed down, stopped, and let out a final breath releasing her soul to the ages. Since I now occupied her room, she was the one we probably saw.
My grandmother Shook died in the dining room downstairs. They set up a bed there as it was closer to the bathroom. I now slept in her bed. So maybe it was grandma who haunted us.
People have seen ghosts throughout the ages. But I’m not sure how many people have ghosts walking through them.
WITNESSES
1) Lori Hooper was my witness when a ghost walked through both of us.
2) My sister Louise Thompson saw “The Undertaker,” an extremely tall man (7 or 8 feet or more), skinny, pale white, long arms that reached his knees, black undertaker’s suit from the 1800s, and a top hat.
3) My brother Bill Thompson heard the ghost playing the piano and felt the hem of an invisible dress on a ghost walk by and touch him.
4) Marion Copley saw the Ghoul from the stairwell.
5) Patty saw the grandmother’s ghost. Plus, she witnessed the lamp episode where it looked as though someone or something sawed it in half.
